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How-To Geek

Would you like a quick way to access your Gmail account whenever you need to without opening a new tab or window? See how easy it is to get one-click access with the Gmail Popup extension for Firefox

Before

Usually if you need to do something in your Gmail account you have to open a new tab/window or maintain an open tab/window throughout the day. Think how nice it would be to have that access in a “Popup Window” instead…there when you need it and out of your way when you do not.

After

Once you install the extension you will need to make certain that your “Status Bar” is visible so that you can access the “Popup Window”. This is what the “Status Bar Icon” looks like…click on it to open Gmail and click on it again to close it. Nice and simple…

Note: For those who prefer keyboard shortcuts you may also open the “Popup Window” using “Ctrl + /” (Ctrl + Forward Slash).

For our example we decided to send an e-mail about an article and one of the software items mentioned in it…

As soon as we clicked on the “Status Bar Icon” Gmail immediately opened up. Using the “Popup Window” will mean viewing your account in “Basic HTML Format” but if you have an important e-mail to get sent out then the lack of a “custom theme” is not really going to matter. You can move around your account just like usual and the “shaded border” helps you stay focused on your e-mail instead of items (such as flashing ads) in the background.

Note: You can resize the “Popup Window” by grabbing the lower right corner and expanding it to the desired size.

Here is the e-mail that we wrote to send out…it may be kind of plain looking (text formatting) but it will certainly get the job done.

Options

There is only one option for the extension…the ability to modify the “Popup URL”.

Conclusion

If you need frequent access to your Gmail account throughout the day but hate having to open a new tab or window each time then you should definitely take a look at this extension.

@Ross Goodman – Here is the link for GCal Popup. ^__^ The only problem at the moment for GCal Popup is that the extension author has not updated it for 3.6. It has worked fine for me after forcing compatibility with MR Tech Toolkit so if you would like to try that here is the link for it too. ^__^

@Connor M. – I found that someone else was having the same problem and has posted about it over at the Mozilla Add-ons page. Since the upgrade to Firefox 3.6 I have noticed that the extension has acted “odd” when opened over one or two particular webpages. :( I am guessing that this is a possible bug in relation to the Firefox 3.6 release. :(